12 replies to this topic

[RobL]

Went out to the British Motor Heritage Centre at Gaydon in Warwickshire today, which has a huge collection of vehicles related to the car history of Britain. Only put up the Mini photos here (photographed all of them except the BMW 'Mini'), although you can see all the others here http://www.oldclassi...opic.php?t=3978



The first production Mini







The three Monte Carlo rally Mini Coopers



Customised Mini convertible, 30cm longer than a normal mini having been fitted with a 'stepladder' chassis



Mini Downtown



ERA Mini



Mini moke



Two Mini prototypes - the one on the left was a gearless prototype and the blue one is a 1969 9X prototype



The last Mini to be built

[*DJH*]

Dev's mini is the last unofficially built mini

[THE ANORAK]

yes, the heritage motor centre have a lot of important minis but unfortunately they only have room for a few of them.

they have a fascinating car called the minki 2 that is longer and wider than a standard mini but otherwise looks the same, it's fitted with the K series engine.

i spoke to the museum curator about it and he assured me that it was only ever a design exercise and had no real chance of going into production, shame really.

I'll post some pics in a bit, when I've found them

they also have the issigonis lightweight special, which was on display last time i was there

a good place to visit, and they do have their own mini show once a year which is now sponsored by mini world

[gavfoz]

Nice to see the first production Mini is MOT'd and taxed.

[THE ANORAK]

the minki 2 (trust me, it is longer and wider than standard)







and some other mini based cars...

[RobL]

Thanks for the photos of the other Minis Anorak, I love the different mini based vehicles and prototypes etc made over the years. Gavfoz, a lot of the vehicles are still MOT'd and taxed, I recognised at least three vehicles from the London-Brighton veteran car run back in November

[THE ANORAK]

this is the lightweight special...





and this is XC9001, the largest of three cars that issigonis was working on, XC9003, the smallest, evolved into the mini (this is a picture of a picture that was on display at the museum, sadly they dont have this car)

Edited by THE ANORAK, 20 December 2007 - 06:59 PM.

[Bungle]

the minki 2 would of made a much better bini

[jayare]

the minki 2 would of made a much better bini

As long as they binned the Metro dash!!!

JR

[Amy]

the smallest, evolved into the mini (this is a picture of a picture that was on display at the museum, sadly they dont have this car)

I've seen some of Issigonis' original sketches for the mini prototype, it looks incredibly like the BMW Mini in his drawings.
I've been trying to convince people of the similarities since I saw the designs a few years ago.....

If you think about it sensibly and look at the pictures with an open mind, they stuck to a design for the new MINI that Issigonis himself should have been proud of!

[*Raz*]

wow

They are gorgeous!!!

[Mini_Magic]

Customised Mini convertible, 30cm longer than a normal mini having been fitted with a 'stepladder' chassis

Why?!

[THE ANORAK]

although there are definitely similarities between the XC9001 and the new mini i dont think issigonis would have been proud of it. he was obsessed with getting the most internal space from the least external space and its fair to say that the new mini fails in this area